A police mega-operation involving Europol (the European Union Agency for Police Cooperation) carried out preventive arrests, searches and seizure of warrants in the host cities of the ports of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and Itajaí on the north coast of Santa Catarina. Thursday morning (30).

Operation Hinterland was launched this Thursday morning with the support of the Brazilian police and the federal tax office. The goal is to stop the international drug trade from South America to Europe, which is promoted by a criminal organization consisting of two large maritime logistics companies headquartered in the ports of Rio Grande do Sul and Itajai.

200 Federal Police Officers Execute Over 500 Court Orders – Photo: PF/RF/Reproduction

200 Federal Police officers and 12 Federal Revenue Service officers are handling 17 preventive arrest warrants and 37 search and seizure warrants in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Parana, Amazonas and Rondonia, in Asuncion, Paraguay, and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. .

Also executed were the theft of 87 properties, 173 vehicles, one aircraft, blocking of bank accounts associated with 147 CPF and CNPJ, 66 blocking the movement of real estate of 66 individuals and legal entities and a ban on issuing GTA (Animal Transit Guide). on four investigated cases, a total of 534 court decisions were executed.

Orders Fulfilled in Itajai, North Coast of South Carolina – Video: ND Archive

With the measures taken, the decapitalization of the criminal organization can reach 3.85 billion reais, which is the estimated value of illegal transactions identified during the investigation.

Operation Hinterland began in March 2021 based on information received by the Federal Police that in December 2020, 316 kg of cocaine were seized in the city of Hamburg, Germany, in the port of Rio Grande.

Maritime logistics companies from South Caucasus and RS shipped 17 tons of cocaine from South America to Europe – Video: PF/RF/Reproduction

Traffic of maritime logistics companies

The investigation revealed that the drug, manufactured in Bolivia, was shipped to Brazil by a Paraguayan supplier and entered the country via Ponta Pora (MS). Subsequently, the cocaine was trucked to Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina and stored in the criminal organization’s own companies or in warehouses near the ports of Rio Grande and Itajaí.

The drug was planted in regular batches with the intervention and coordination of the top management of logistics companies, without the knowledge of contractors, owners of legal batches – as a rule, entrances that could mask the drug during customs control.

On the European continent, a group of drug dealers led by a man of Albanian origin stole part of a regular shipment containing cocaine for distribution to several European countries.

During the two years of investigation, it was proved that the criminal organization transported 17 tons of drugs destined for Europe, of which 12 tons were seized.

For Operation Hinterland, the Federal Police signed international police cooperation agreements with Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Paraguay, as well as international legal cooperation agreements with France and Germany to carry out measures abroad.